Talking Points

• Nearly everyone in New Jersey is facing the sticker shock of rising home costs.
• More and more of us are finding it impossible to find a home we can afford.
• Families in New Jersey must earn, on average, more than $43,000 a year to pay for a two-bedroom apartment or a starter home. Source: National Low Income Housing Coalition 2005, "Out of Reach" report
• Over half of New Jersey workers currently earn less than $33,000 a year. Source: New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Occupational Employment Statistics Wage Survey
• Within the next ten years, three-quarters of all new jobs created here will pay $40,000 or less. Source: New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development: "Projections 2012: New Jersey Employment and Population in the 21st Century"
• Many employees who obtain these lower-paying jobs ($40,000 or less) will have to live out of state. Source: New Jersey State Development and Redevelopment Plan
• A shocking one-fourth of single-family New Jersey homes are now selling for over $500,000. Source: New Jersey Association of Realtors, Third Quarter 2005
• The average price of a home in New Jersey has increased 76 percent from 2000 to 2005. Source: Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, 2005
• Many security guards, sheriff's officers, emergency medical technicians, nurses' assistants, licensed practical nurses and teachers' aides cannot afford a home in New Jersey. Rents, as well as mortgages, are out of their reach.
• Middle- and lower-income workers and their families MUST have access to homes they can afford, not the high-priced market we are now seeing.
• Everyone deserves a decent place to live, to raise a family, build a life and enjoy a future.
• New Jersey needs a comprehensive housing strategy to help everyone reach that goal.
• Together, we can make New Jersey a place where everyone has a fair shot at the American Dream.

The HOMES FOR NEW JERSEY campaign has a Homes We Can Afford Action Plan ready to go.

Create and preserve 100,000 more homes that New Jerseyans can afford by

• Offering incentives for higher-density, mixed-income homes in our cities and towns
• Creating new ways to help people stay in their homes
• Replacing the homes of lower-income residents who are displaced by redevelopment

Address the housing needs of very low-income New Jerseyans by

• Making sure current housing plans provide opportunities for very low-income families
• Maintaining or increasing the current level of funding for the State's rental assistance program

This is not too much to ask New Jersey's leaders to do.

New Jersey's leaders should:

• Take a stand in support of New Jersey families and make Homes for New Jersey a priority.
• Endorse the Homes We Can Afford Action Plan.

No family, no child, no senior citizen should have to live in substandard housing, in a car, or on the street.